Author:

George Conger

The former archdeacon for the Northeast for CANA’s Diocese of the East has received a one year suspended sentence for possession of child pornography. Justice Patrick Larson sentenced Wayne Buchanan to a suspended one-year prison term and two years probation after the former rector of St Brendan’s Anglican Church in Bass Harbor, ME, pled guilty on 25 Aug 2017 to one count of possessing sexually explicit material of a minor under the age of 12, a Class C felony level crime. Buchan must also register as a sex offender and during his probation may have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 12. Assistant District Attorney Toff Toffolon told the Hancock county court there was no evidence that Buchanan had disseminated child pornography or had sexual contact with minors. He had cooperated with police and the district attorney’s office, the prosecutor said, and asked the court to accept the plea deal. Since being charged, Buchanan has “engaged in extraordinary rehabilitation efforts,” Toffolon said. An affidavit prepared by Detective David Armstrong of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit alleged that on 27 Dec 2015 police identified a computer in their jurisdiction that was seeding pornographic materials. On 6 Jan 2016 Maine State Police executed the search warrant at Dr. Buchanan’s home seizing computers, thumb drives and a memory card. After reviewing the files taken from Buchanan’s computer, police brought the results of their investigation to state prosecutors. They concluded, however, that Buchanan was not disseminating child pornography leading Federal authorities to decline to pursue charges. On 7 Jan 2016 the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs accepted Buchanan’s resignation as rector of St Brendan’s and a subsequent review by the diocese led to Buchanan’s removal from holy orders. In February Bishop Dobbs told the Bangor Daily News Buchanan’s dismissal was “not something that is appropriate at this time” to discuss, but confirmed his ex-archdeacon was being investigated by police for a matter unrelated to his tenure at St Brendan’s.